The circumstances of how the Shadow King came into the employ of Apocalypse have never been revealed. What is known is that he is a mutant of incredible power which Apocalypse keeps locked in a bottle in his domain. Years ago Amahl Farouk and Charles Xavier encountered each other in Israel and fought on the astral plane. Charles Xavier triumphed in the psychic battle with Amahl Farouk apparently killed. In reality Farouk’s body was merely trapped on the astral plane where he became a disembodied persona. Years later he became one of many servants to Apocalypse. He was the first to sense the presence of the powerful telepath X-Man and alerted Apocalypse who sent Domino to investigate. When Bishop was captured, the Shadow King was sent to telepathically probe his mind. He discovered that Bishop hailed from another reality and tried to investigate further . However Bishop’s mind proved to be too powerful and Shadow King’s essence was expunged. He was later dispatched by Apocalypse to sneak into Avalon and destroy it. After the first wave of Apocalypse’s forces was destroyed by X-Calibre, Shadow King possessed the mind of one of the citizens of Avalon and began attacking. Mystique shot the citizen dead but the Shadow King merely jumped into another mind and another until he possessed almost every citizen of Avalon and killed them. He then possessed Mystique but Nightcrawler came up with a plan. He deduced that the Shadow King used the same space to make transitions between hosts as he did whenever he teleported. He teleported with Damask and Switchback, who had the ability to extend the transition time between Nightcrawler’s teleports. They located the Shadow King and Damask used her psychic powers to destroy him. Before he died, the Shadow King tried to kill Destiny with an energy blast but Doug Ramsey, Destiny’s adopted son, jumped in front of the blast and saved her. His death was enough to convince Destiny to aid in the collapse of Apocalypse’s empire.